Censorship vs. Empathy Training

I realize that this isn't directly related to tutoring or to the entirety of our class discussion today, but this is a topic that really interests me. In fact, last year I presented a paper at an undergraduate research paper conference about the need for discussing love as a solution to social problems (not just as an abstract emotion) in classrooms. That sounds pretty cheesy, I know, but I think that it really makes sense. Actions and words of offense and exploitation run rampant in our modern American society and in many other societies. Often, we censor explicit and offensive words and behaviors. The problem is that the standards for explicitness and offensiveness, just like everything else pertaining to language, are subject to change. Thus, censors are unable to create concrete standards of linguical conduct, and censees are unable to be sure about the current appropriateness of their language. In short, all parties involved (censors, censees, and victims) can easily become frustrated. Interestingly, exploitative behaviors, which can be as damaging physically as offensive language is phsychologically and emotionally (if not more so), are not as carefully censored as offensive terms are, in my opinion. Even though there are many laws prohibiting certain exploitative behaviors (which is a luxury that is not afforded to the offensive language arena), many of these behaviors still occur in such an insidious way that if a similar issue lurked in the realms of language, the "guardians of political correctness" would be appalled beyond belief. With each exploitation-produced product that we, as ignorant consumers, buy, we are degrading a fellow human being to an extent unreachable by offensive language. Rather than just creating myriad laws or conventions that prohibit and punish both offensive language and exploitative behaviors, why don't we start focusing on preventing these problems by helping school-aged children think critically about various values, behaviors, and attitudes? Morals do not have to be imposed by authoritarian figures in order for this to take place; students should simply be given the opportunity to reflect on what their values are or would be in a given situation. Current local and global humanitarian issues could be discussed during classes, and children could be encouraged to reflect on what should happen in these situations as well as what their individual values, behaviors, and attitudes could do to help remedy these situations. Such exercises could easily be implemented in English and Social Studies classes; other disciplines could also get involved in the effort by assigning such assignments as appropriate. By reflecting on and discussing empathic issues (which are essentially related to love) in classrooms, preventative measures would be in place for resolving social problems and decrease some of the need for the censorship of words and behaviors.